PS4

I woke up to a lot of technology news today. News was coming in from E3 that the new PS4 and X-Box have been previewed and were all set for a holiday launch. Exciting news in its own, this was also followed by the fact that iOS7 had also been previewed along with a revolutionary Mac Pro by Apple in an entirely different forum. It seemed to be a good day for tech enthusiasts the world over.

Gamers have been waiting a long time for these next generation consoles. The media has been rife with speculation over what these two consoles had in store. Which is nothing new. I remember seeing the last PS3 and Xbox being launched in India years ago. I always wanted to buy either, but have kept putting that off and viola we have two brand new consoles coming our way. I remember back then a friend of mine and I were awed by the graphics on the PS3 at that time. These days I doubt that would be the case with PC gamers having enough power in their GPUs to compete easily. Whats more PC games are become more visual with less hardware requirements. When these consoles do hit the Indian markets I expect there to be an all-out marketing blitz by both parties. The PS4 being the cheaper model is probably going to beat the X-box for a cash strapped Indian gamer. This said, how expensive will these games be? In India especially I expect the PS3 will see a price cut and probably a lot of takers. And who knows, the PS2 may finally be laid to rest here. These consoles are targeted at more mature gamers, I doubt a lot parents will splurge on the hefty price tag for their kids to take one of these new consoles home.

Gameplay in its essence will not change with these two new consoles. Yes with the touch controller that the PS4 is providing, we may see a few innovations. But really do you think that swiping and flicking actions that we have come to associate with casual games on tablets can really be made to good use in a full-blown gaming title? I am sure someone will crack it.

The games that really caught my eye were two IPs that have already left their marks on gaming. The return of Garrett in Thief and Faith from Mirror’s Edge. While I have to confess I never really played either of the original games to their completion, these two new titles do look like a lot of eye candy.

From a hardware standpoint I found both consoles to be quite unappealing. While the last time these consoles went head to head you had the pristine white X-box was visibly well differentiated by the glossy black PS3. Now both of these devices look like black boxes. I’d have loved to see a little bit more styling on both. Currently though I kind of prefer the look of the PS4 to the new X-Box.

The question to be asked by all in the communication field is with games becoming more cinematic, when will we sit up and sign them on for product endorsements?